Christianity and World Religions Leader Guide Revised Edition: Questions We Ask About Other Faiths - Softcover

Hamilton, Adam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1501873350 ISBN 13: 9781501873355

Publisher: Abingdon Press, 2018

Synopsis

Study the entire Book of Revelation starting with John's theology that teaches that Jesus, the exalted Christ, is the center of faith. Some of the major ideas explored are: personal religious experience; living voice of God in the church today; advocating for what is right; distinguishing between good and evil; God's grace seeks to redeem; and covenant with God. Leader Guide includes: • A verse-by-verse, in-depth look at the Scriptures. • Background material, including word studies and history of the biblical setting. • Answers to questions asked in the Participant Book. • Application of the Scripture to daily life situations. • Discussion suggestions. • A variety of study options. • Practical tips for leaders to use. More than 3.5 million copies of the series have been sold. This revision of the Abingdon classic Genesis to Revelation Series is a comprehensive, verse-by-verse, book-by-book study of the Bible based on the NIV. These studies help readers strengthen their understanding and appreciation of the Bible by enabling them to engage the Scripture on three levels: • What does the Bible say? Questions to consider while reading the passage for each session. • What does the passage mean? Unpacks key verses in the selected passage. • How does the Scripture relate to my life? Provides three major ideas that have meaning for our lives today. The meaning of the selected passages are made clear by considering such aspects as ancient customs, locations of places, and the meanings of words. The simple format makes the study easy to use. Updates will include: • New cover designs.

About this title

About the Author

Adam Hamilton is senior pastor of The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, one of the fastest growing, most highly visible churches in the country. The Church Report named Hamilton's congregation the most influential mainline church in America, and he preached at the National Prayer Service as part of the presidential inauguration festivities in 2013. Hamilton is the best-selling and award-winning author of The Walk, Simon Peter, Creed, Half Truths, The Call, The Journey, The Way, 24 Hours That Changed the World, John, Revival, Not a Silent Night, Enough, When Christians Get It Wrong, and Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White, all published by Abingdon Press. Learn more about Adam Hamilton at AdamHamilton.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Christianity and World Religions Leader Guide Revised Edition

Questions We Ask About Other Faiths

By Adam Hamilton, Alex Joyner

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2018 Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5018-7335-5

Contents

To the Leader, 
1. The Wise Men, 
2. Hinduism, 
3. Buddhism, 
4. Judaism, 
5. Islam, 
6. Christianity, 

CHAPTER 1

The Wise Men

Planning the Session

Session Goals

As a result of conversations and activities connected with this session, group members should be able to:

• articulate the value of studying other religions as a means of understanding our neighbors;

• define what a theology of religions is and the questions it seeks to answer;

• identify three different perspectives on other religions: religious pluralism, Christian exclusivism, and Christian inclusivism; and

• point to biblical resources for understanding other religions.

Scriptural Foundation

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the territory of Judea during the rule of King Herod, magi came from the east to Jerusalem. They asked, "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We've seen his star in the east, and we've come to honor him." ...

[Herod] sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search carefully for the child. ..." They went; and look, the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy. They entered the house and saw the child with Mary his mother. Falling to their knees, they honored him. Then they opened their treasure chests and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

(Matthew 2:1-2, 8a, 9-11)

Special Preparation

• If the participants in your group are not familiar with one another, provide materials for name tags.

• Have Bibles available for those who may not bring them.

• Provide paper, pens, and pencils for participants.

• Provide a means for showing the DVD (e.g., TV/DVD player) and cue Session 1: The Wise Men.

• Arrange your seating in a circle or semicircle so that all participants can see one another.

• Prepare a large sheet of paper in the following way and post it in a visible location in your meeting area: First, write "A Theology of Religions Answers ..." across the top of the sheet. Next, write the following questions from the study book below:

* Why are there so many different religions?

* What is the relationship between these religions?

* How does God look at people of other religions?

* What is the eternal fate of those who practice a religion other than the one I follow?

• Write "Why Study Other Religions?" at the top of a second large sheet of paper and post it in another visible area of the room.

• Have additional large sheets of blank paper and markers available.

• Find various objects (at least two) for a drawing exercise (take care that the objects are hidden from group members). The objects should be unusually shaped or textured. Read through the exercise titled "Draw an Object to Experience 'Feeling the Elephant'" below to visualize what might be needed. Two suggestions are a simple child's toy (e.g., a wooden horse) and a seashell.

Getting Started

Opening Activity: Begin by Exploring Traditions

If your group members are not familiar with one another, invite them to put on a name tag as they enter. Once everyone is present and seated, ask the group to introduce themselves by name.

Now say: "Welcome to this study of Christianity and World Religions. One of the goals for this study is for us to understand our neighbors better. So let's begin by getting to know our neighbors in this group just a little bit better."

Ask group members to find a partner, preferably someone they do not know well, and move to a space in the room where they can talk. (This exercise can be done with both persons standing.) Tell each pair to identify which one will do the following exercise first. Now ask the person going first to talk for sixty seconds about what a typical meal in their childhood home looked like. What did you eat? Where did everyone sit? Were there certain rituals, like saying grace, that were observed?

During this first minute, the other partner should remain silent and listen. Then switch roles and have the second partner share their experiences of a meal in their childhood home. Set a timer so that you can signal when the sixty seconds are up.

Now have everyone come back to the larger group. Ask:

• What did you learn about your partner's household traditions?

• In what ways were your experiences different?

• How do our family traditions shape our expectations of what mealtime is supposed to look like?

Say: "In this study, we are going to encounter a number of different traditions that may challenge and enrich us. Let's pray that we will grow to love our neighbors and God more through these sessions together."

Begin with Prayer

Offer the following prayer or one of your own:

God of many nations, we trust you and we believe that your desire is for all people to know your love.

As we seek to know our neighbors better, help us grow to love them more, and to see your intentions for all creation. Amen.

Learning Together

Video Study and Discussion

In chapter 1, Adam Hamilton outlines the importance for Christians of developing a theology of religions, and he shares his hopes for this study. In the video, he offers some basic questions that Christians ask about other religions. He also presents three possible perspectives offered by Christians to the question of the fate of people of other religions: exclusivism, universalism or religious pluralism, and Christian inclusivism. The video also includes an interview with Matt and Sangeeta, an interfaith couple. See a transcript of this interview on page 16 under the heading "A Conversation About Faith."

Play the video segment for Session 1 and then discuss some of the following questions:

• What are Adam Hamilton's aims in putting together this study? Why is it important that we understand the two-thirds of the world's people who are not Christian?

• How often do you think about the questions that Adam Hamilton asks? How can they help us love our neighbors better?

• Matt and Sangeeta talk about the practices that have helped them live together as an interfaith couple. What are those practices? When has a conversation or a meal helped you understand someone with whom you felt you had little in common?

Book and Bible Study and Discussion

Consider People of Other Faiths

Invite participants to think about the people they interact with in the course of a normal weekday. Ask:

• How many of the people whom you meet are followers of a faith other than Christianity?

• How often is faith a subject that you have talked about with people of another faith?

• What things about their faith make you curious to know more?

A Conversation About Faith

Matt and Sangeeta attend the Church of the Resurrection. Matt grew up in the church. Sangeeta is from a Hindu family. They married several years ago, and Sangeeta attends worship with Matt while continuing to be a Hindu. They are learning how to be a married couple from two different religions. Here's an excerpt of an interview we conducted with them:

Sangeeta: What we talk about often is the centrality of ethics. "Love thy neighbor" is one example of that. But it's also in the Golden Rule, doing unto others as you would have done unto you.

Matt: What did Jesus do at the Last Supper? I think bringing together different faiths over food is such an integral thing in different communities. Once you start eating something different, you start hearing, "What is that?" And you start learning so much that you start becoming empathetic toward another person of another faith. And you start to see the world through their eyes — which I think opens you up to be more inclusive of all people.

Sangeeta: To really grasp where someone else is coming from, I think you have to be open to having conversations, to be loving in those conversations, and carefully try to understand where someone else has come from a deep place with their own beliefs and faith.

Matt: I think it goes back to stories, too — telling stories. Telling stories I think both humanizes and helps you relate to a different religion, a foreign culture. If we can't somehow get outside of our comfort zone as Christians and really live into what Jesus preaches, then we're going to have trouble talking to those billions of people. And I think that there's something about telling stories and eating food and just loving on one another — that's the way to talk to them as a Christian.

Say: "Adam Hamilton shares in his book that two-thirds of the world's population is not Christian, including 100 million Americans. He also states that his hope for this study is that we will understand our neighbors better."

As people respond to the following questions, write responses on the large sheet titled "Why Study Other Religions?" that you have posted prior to the session. Ask:

• Why should we study other religions?

• How is learning about people of other faiths a way of loving our neighbors?

• What are your hopes for this study?

Define a Theology of Religions

Read the section in chapter 1 about Grandfather Hamilton and a theology of religions (page 14). Invite group members to consider the messages about other religions they received in their family of origin. Ask participants to find a partner or two and discuss the following questions among themselves:

• Was the theology of religions in your family of origin closer to Grandfather Hamilton's or the man in Adam Hamilton's congregation? Or was it different from both?

• How has your understanding of other religions changed through your life?

After allowing some time for discussion, bring the whole group back together and direct their attention to the sheet you posted earlier titled "A Theology of Religions Answers ..." Invite the group to read the questions on this sheet aloud in unison. Ask:

• Which of these questions seems most interesting to you? Why?

• What other questions have you had about other religions?

Recreate the Journey of the Magi

Invite a volunteer who is a good public reader to read Matthew 2:1-12 from the Bible as others follow along. Divide into small groups of three to four persons. Ask the groups to quickly scan the section of chapter 1 about the journey of the magi to visit Jesus (pages 23–24). Then ask them to discuss the passage from Matthew using the following guiding questions:

• Who are the magi?

• Why might God have included them in the story of Jesus' birth?

• What do we learn about God from their inclusion in the story?

After some time for discussion, come back together as a large group and share insights from the small groups.

Next, ask for four volunteers to do an improvisational sketch about the magi. Have one person play the role of a television journalist reporting live from the field as she or he interviews the three other volunteers playing the roles of magi. Have the journalist ask questions related to the discussion you have just done, asking the basics of Who? What? Where? When? and Why? Encourage the actors to have fun with the exercise and thank them when they have finished.

Now ask:

• What is something new you learned from revisiting the story of the magi?

• What is surprising about them?

Consider the Hidden God

Once again, direct attention to the sheet titled "A Theology of Religions Answers. ..." Have the group read the first question aloud. Now say: "Adam Hamilton explores this first question in the section of chapter 1 titled 'The Hidden God'" (pages 15–17). Ask:

• In what ways have you experienced God as hidden?

• What are some reasons why God chooses to be known indirectly?

Read aloud the story of Adam Hamilton's encounter with a physicist in the section "The Hidden God" (pages 16–17). Ask:

• How does Hamilton see God as something similar to the fundamental forces of nature?

• How does this understanding help to explain the existence of multiple religions?

Draw an Object to Experience "Feeling the Elephant"

Get the various objects you provided before the session, taking care not to let the other group members see the objects. Invite volunteers who will be guest artists. Assure the group that you are not looking for high-quality art. Have the volunteers come to a table in pairs. Put a blank piece of paper and a drawing utensil in front of each.

Now ask the pair of volunteers to put their hands behind their backs with their palms upturned to receive an object. Tell them and the group that you will be placing an object in their hands for them to manipulate for a few seconds. They will then draw the object just from having felt it.

Stand behind the volunteers, choose one of the objects, and hold it up so that the group can see it. Then place the object in the hands of the first volunteer. Allow the volunteer to hold it for a few seconds, then move it to the second volunteer. Have the volunteers draw quickly their impressions of the object. After they finish, show the drawings to the group, then show the object to the volunteers.

If you have time, repeat the exercise with a different pair of volunteers and a different object. At the conclusion of the exercise, ask:

• How were the drawings similar?

• How were they different?

• How might this exercise help us understand the relationship between different religions?

Read the section of chapter 1 titled "Come Find Me" (pages 18–21). Ask:

• What is the incarnation?

• How does God's incarnation in Jesus help Christians understand who God is?

Study Different Perspectives on Religions

Divide into three groups. Assign each small group one of the three perspectives on religion that Hamilton defines in chapter 1: religious pluralism (or universalism), exclusivism, and Christian inclusivism. Ask the groups to study the section of chapter 1 that describes the perspective they have been assigned (see pages 25–29). Ask them to prepare a short report to the total group that answers the following questions:

• How does Hamilton define this perspective?

• How does this perspective view people of other faiths?

• What supports this perspective?

Have the groups prepare a large sheet of paper defining their perspective that they can post on the walls during their presentation.

Regather as a total group and have each group give a brief presentation on the perspective they have been assigned. Now read aloud the section at the conclusion of chapter 1 in which Hamilton quotes C. S. Lewis (page 30). Ask:

• What perspective does C. S. Lewis present in this passage?

• How is it an expression of God's mercy?

Wrapping Up

Read the Closing of Jonah

Ask for three readers to read Jonah 3:10–4:11. Set the scene by saying that this is the end of the Book of Jonah and that the people of Nineveh, a non-Jewish city, have repented from their evil ways. Have one reader be the narrator. The other two readers should read the parts of Jonah and God.

After the reading, thank the volunteers and ask:

• How does this story reveal God's grace and mercy?

• What message might there be for us as we consider people of other religions?

Close with a Prayer

Close with the following prayer, or ask a group member to lead the group in a prayer of his or her own:

God, thank you for your abundant love to us that is anything but hidden. Thank you for coming in the person of Jesus to reveal yourself more fully to us. Help us to take the time in love to learn about our neighbors, to break bread with them and listen to their stories. Like the magi who saw your light and responded, let your light shine through us so the world can see. In Jesus' name, Amen.

CHAPTER 2

Hinduism

Planning the Session

Session Goals

As a result of conversations and activities connected with this session, group members should be able to:

• identify the historical roots and sacred texts of Hinduism;

• articulate some of the basic beliefs of Hinduism;

• compare and contrast some Christian beliefs with those of Hinduism; and

• appreciate the possibilities and potential benefits of Christian-Hindu interactions.

Scriptural Foundation

At one time you were like a dead person because of the things you did wrong and your offenses against God. You used to live like people of this world. You followed the rule of a destructive spiritual power. This is the spirit of disobedience to God's will that is now at work in persons whose lives are characterized by disobedience. At one time you were like those persons. All of you used to do whatever felt good and whatever you thought you wanted so that you were children headed for punishment just like everyone else.

However, God is rich in mercy. He brought us to life with Christ while we were dead as a result of those things that we did wrong. He did this because of the great love that he has for us. You are saved by God's grace!And God raised us up and seated us in the heavens with Christ Jesus. God did this to show future generations the greatness of his grace by the goodness that God has shown us in Christ Jesus.

You are saved by God's grace because of your faith. This salvation is God's gift. It's not something you possessed. It's not something you did that you can be proud of. Instead, we are God's accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives.

(Ephesians 2:1-10)

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Christianity and World Religions Leader Guide Revised Edition by Adam Hamilton, Alex Joyner. Copyright © 2018 Abingdon Press. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1501873350
• ISBN 13: 9781501873355
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 64